The Power of Partners: Excelling Children in Their Learning!

Transcription

1 The Power of Partners: Excelling Children in Their Learning! Sheri Sutterley Walnut Elementary Education Center Turlock Unified School District California Kindergarten Conference 2012 Power of Learning Partners In Kindergarten Ready.Set..Move!

2 Activities to Promote Language and Learning To begin: Teach children how to Buddy up and the appropriate behaviors. At first, the teacher chooses the children s partner. I usually match up the children by putting High Language with Medium Language students, Medium Language with Low Language students. This tends to avoid the frustrations that some children have in working in pairs. Here are some simple buddy activities to start up your Kindergarten year: * Read alphabet chart together. * Name activities or poems. * Teach handclapping poems to do together. (Ex. Pease Porridge Hot or Miss Mary Mack) * Pass out whiteboards or chalkboards and write a taught high frequency word together. (One board per buddy pair) * Pass out whiteboards or chalkboards and write letters using correct letter formation. Then: Once children are able to work together, introduce new activities for different standards during your Circle or whole group teaching time. Prior to activity, go over the standard that you are focusing on a model the activity to them with a student from the class. The goal is for one child to be the teacher and the other child to be the student. After the modeling has been completed, tell the children to Buddy up and self-select who is going to be the teacher or student. Have the teacher tell the student what to do. At teacher s signal, children switch roles. I use a chime to signal switch. The following activities are listed below the selected Kindergarten Standards from California. A wonderful website that lists Kid Friendly Standards is: Thank you to Modesto City Schools for permission to share them with us!

3 I can read from left to right and top to bottom. I post the objective on a pocket chart with a picture HOW we are going to accomplish that objective. (Example: Writing Center, Alphabet Center, Journal writing, cut-up sentence, etc ) Concepts About Print 1.1 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book. 1.2 Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page. * Point to the words. Point to the letters. Read the book together and have the student point to the words from top to bottom and left to right on the page. The teacher uses the words Make your voice match! 1.5 Distinguish letters from words. * Have children get their book box and choose a book to work with. Have the teacher tell the student what to do. Point to a letter. Point to a word. If time, have them do the same activity from pocket charts or print on the walls in the classroom. 1.6 Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet. Pass out your alphabet charts to each buddy pair. Have the teacher listen as the student reads the letters and then switch roles at signal. Pass out alphabet cards. Teacher uses flashcards to work with student. Switch roles at signal. Pass out whiteboards or chalkboards. Have the teacher say a letter and the student writes the letter, reads it with their finger and erases. Switch roles at signal.

4 Phonemic Awareness 1.7 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent the number, sameness/ difference, and order of two and three isolated phonemes (e.g., /f, s, th/, /j, d, j/). 1.8 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent changes in simple syllables and words with two and three sounds as one sound is added, substituted, omitted, shifted, or repeated (e.g., vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel, or consonantvowelconsonant). 1.9 Blend vowel-consonant sounds orally to make words or syllables. Have teacher whisper a word slowly that is posted on pocket chart to partner and child says it fast orally. This works well with CVC words! Continue with different words from pocket chart until the signal. Switch roles. To challenge partners, children can use their OWN words, but I usually don t do that until the end of the year. You don t want to confuse your students! Have children stand in a circle and face out. Pass a CVC picture or word card to each student. When teacher gives the signal, students find their match to their picture or word. The child with the word has to say the word slowly while pointing to each letter. Say it slow... Say it fast..., It sounds like that! (Stretch out word) (Say it fast!!!) Written by Sheri Sutterley & Lisa Castaneda, A new one.. Say it fast then say it slow What word is it? Here we go! (Stretch out word) (Say it fast!!!) Written by Sheri Sutterley, Summer 2011

5 1.10 Identify and produce rhyming words in response to an oral prompt. Teacher says a word from the pocket chart and the student says a word that rhymes with the word. Repeat with different words until the signal is given. Have children stand in a circle and face out. Pass a picture card to each student. When teacher gives the signal, students find their rhyming partner and sit down. After everyone is seated, the pairs come up to the pocket chart and put their rhyming words on the pocket chart as they say the words Distinguish orally stated one-syllable words and separate into beginning or ending sounds. Pass out one-syllable words to each buddy pair. Have them read the word together and put up on the pocket chart under the correct beginning sound. Repeat on a different day with ending sounds. B bat S sun 1.12 Track auditorily each word in a sentence and each syllable in a word. Have children stand in a circle and face out. Pass a word card to each student. At signal, they find a buddy and read the word slowly to their buddy by pointing to each letter. Their partner reads the word quickly and then they find a new partner. (This is a free flowing activity without a signal to move) Stop when you see that they are done! 1.13 Count the number of sounds in syllables and syllables in words. Have children stand in a circle and face out. Pass a picture card to each student that a different number of syllables. At signal, they find a buddy and clap each other s word and count the syllables. (This is a free flowing activity without a signal to move) Stop when you see that they are done! Decoding and Word Recognition 1.14 Match all consonant and short-vowel sounds to appropriate letters. Have children stand in a circle and face out. Give each child either a picture card or letter and at signal, go find its letter buddy and then sit

6 down. Have each pair share their picture and letter sound. Have children stand in a circle and face out. Give each child a magnetic lower case letter (that represents the sound) or a letter card. At signal, children find the sound / letter match. The children with the magnetic letter say the sound Read simple one-syllable and high-frequency words (i.e., sight words). Give the buddies a stack of high frequency cards. Have teacher show the card and student reads the word. Continue until signal. Pass out whiteboards or chalkboards. The teacher says a word from the word wall and student writes the word, reads the word with their finger, and erases the word. Continue until signal Understand that as letters of words change, so do the sounds (i.e., the alphabetic principle). Pass out whiteboards or chalkboards. Have the teacher say a word from a list of words on pocket chart. (Example: dog) Have the teacher say another word (hog) and student erases the first letter and writes an h. the student reads the new word with finger. Continue until signal. Vocabulary and Concept Development 1.17 Identify and sort common words in basic categories (e.g., colors, shapes, foods). Gives buddies a tub of Math manipulatives. Sort together on a sorting mat. Decide the rule and share at signal. 2.0 Reading Comprehension 2.1 Locate the title, table of contents, name of author, and name of illustrator. Show me the title table of contents, author and illustrator. Switch with a new book. Comprehension and Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text

7 2.2 Use pictures and context to make predictions about story content. Pass out wordless books and have buddy pairs make up stories together with wordless books. If time, have them share with other groups or to whole class in an Author s chair. 2.4 Retell familiar stories. As you have children make different retelling props throughout the year, have them retell to other students 2.5 Ask and answer questions about essential elements of a text. 3.0 Literary Response and Analysis 3.2 Identify types of everyday print materials (e.g., storybooks, poems, newspapers, signs, labels). 3.3 Identify characters, settings, and important events. Pass out known fairy tales or books that children can retell. Have the teacher ask student to identify the characters in the story. Ask, Where did it take place?

8 Look At All the Words I Know! Name (Copy and paste the above title to a blank or lined piece of paper) Dear Family, Today I worked with a Reading Buddy. We worked on Ask me about it! Love, Name

9 My Wordlist

10 Rhyming Picture and Rhyming Websites (Some realistic pictures!) * A HUGE thank you to my Walnut Kindergarten team for all their collaboration and support! * Permission given by DJ Inkers for use of fonts and graphics. Please call or visit for more information.